This is a guided meditation to develop concentration,
Calm abiding.
Find yourself in a comfortable seated position where the seat bones are slightly elevated so that you can have a long extended spine where the head rests on top of the spine.
The chest is buoyant and lifted.
The shoulders are comfortably dropped and relaxed.
The spine gently tucked in.
The hands can be placed on the thighs or with the palms up with the right hand placed on top of the left hand,
Thumbs gently touching.
Feel the body lift,
Chest open,
The shoulders roll back and down.
Feel the whole body.
Be mindful of the whole body.
Feel the seat bones firmly planted.
Feel balanced both sides of the body.
Take a deep inhalation and a deep exhalation.
As you exhale,
Relax the body,
Relax the mind.
Open the eyes,
Soften the muscles around the jaw,
The mouth,
The chin,
The neck,
The temples.
Feel the face relax.
Using your exhalation to help relaxation,
Allowing everything to drop.
Feel the scalp relaxing,
The shoulders,
The back,
The arms.
Through relaxing we are developing patience,
Cultivating the right mind to prepare for concentration.
Keep the spine tall but relaxed.
Feel yourself,
There is nowhere to be right now other than focusing on this meditation.
Relaxed,
Inhalations,
Exhalations,
Feeling the body.
Listen into stillness.
Consciously relaxing areas of the body that are tight or holding on.
The mind is gentle,
Heart is gentle.
Feel the breath in the body.
Now allow the breath to be exactly as it is without changing it.
Just observing the breath,
How it moves in the nostrils,
Into the lungs.
See how the breath touches different parts of the body.
Now as you inhale and then exhale,
Count 1.
Then when you inhale and exhale again,
Count 2.
Do this until you reach 10.
If the mind wanders,
Start from 1.
Think about the quality of your attention rather than the amount of attention that you can count.
Using the counting as a tool for mindfulness,
Not the counting.
Feel how the breath moves in the nostrils,
Into the lungs.
How does the belly move,
The ribcage move?
Bring the mind to the breath.
Stay with the breath.
See how the breath touches different parts of the body.
This is how we become unified with the body.
Relaxed,
Body is relaxed,
The mind is gently placed on the breath,
Counting.
An inhalation and an exhalation as one.
Make the mind vividly focused on the breath.
Patently,
Keeping the mind on the breath,
Using counting as your tether,
Bonding the mind to the breath.
Relaxed,
Body is relaxed,
The mind is gently placed on the breath,
Counting.
Feel it.
Feel it in your body.
Relaxed.
Calm.
Still.
And without judgement,
Just watching,
Feeling,
Being aware.
Feel peaceful in this stillness.
Investigating the breath with energy and awakeness,
With clarity.
If the mind wanders,
Deepen the breath to keep the focus.
See the breath as one integrated with the body.
Use your senses,
Feeling,
Experiencing the breath and the body.
Calm,
Steady,
Patient.
Remembering the quality of your attention with each inhalation and exhalation.
Remembering your posture,
Bringing energy to your attention.
Be happy watching the experience,
Without judgement.
Steady mind.
Breathing.
Counting.
Poised.
Still.
Relaxed.
Mind in one place,
The breath,
Inside the body.
Bringing the mind back continually to the breath,
Until it naturally sits on the breath.
Patently,
Calmly.
If the mind is sitting on the breath continually,
Then stop counting and just be with the breath.
If the mind is wandering,
Continue to count,
Until 10,
Starting from the beginning when the mind wanders.
The quality of your attention is more important than the amount of breaths you can count.
Be happy.
Be relaxed in the body.
Soften into stillness.
Continue to count the breaths if you feel to carry on this meditation.
Otherwise come to rest.
I wish you all the success in your practice.
